The Pandora Experiment
by SpecialAgentJim
Summary: In this story, Size Matters! It's not what you think, though. Daniel and Jack are having a little adventure, thanks to some mischievous aliens. NOT SLASH Please read and review, thanks! PART FIVE posted.
1. The Writing On The Wall

**DISCLAIMER:** I do not own Stargate SG-1 or any of the characters. The copyright belongs to MGM, Gekko Films, and all those other fine folks. I'm writing this story because I want to. This is for entertainment purposes only, and no money has ever changed hands.

**SPOILERS**: Well, this takes place sometime in the middle of Season 5, so there may be spoiler potential for anything you haven't seen up to that point.

**ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:** I got the idea for Daniel's paperweight from a similar idea in a story by **iamdragonrider**. I hope you don't mind that I used a similar idea. Let me know if you do mind, though, and it can be edited away...

**The Pandora Experiment**

**1. The Writing On The Wall **

Colonel Jack O'Neill, decorated officer of the United States Air Force, veteran of the Gulf War, and explorer of other worlds, was bored. It wasn't garden-variety restlessness that plagued him. This boredom was the kind that was born of forced inactivity; not the kind that came when he simply couldn't think of things to do, but the kind that tormented him when there really was nothing to do. At the moment he was standing beside General Hammond in the control room, watching Walter Harriman dial the Stargate. Strictly speaking, Jack was not supposed to be here but the general must have sensed how he was feeling, because he didn't ask Jack to leave. Watching other teams go off-world when he was stuck at the SGC wasn't exactly Jack's idea of a good time, but it beat wandering the corridors in search of somebody who wasn't too busy to give him the time of day, especially when _everyone_ on base claimed to be too busy.

When they weren't involved in off-world missions, the members of Jack's team were engaged in about a dozen other plans and projects. At the moment, Teal'c was visiting with his fellow Jaffa on Chulak. The last he'd seen of Carter, she'd been in her lab, tinkering with some kind of alien toy that SG-6 had brought back from their last mission. Jack assumed Daniel was similarly engaged, as the young archaeologist had just come back with a collection of stuff from P3X-789 where he'd been poking around some broken down temple ruins with SG-11. Jack couldn't figure out how Daniel could get so excited over a bunch of chipped clay pots and weird-looking stones, but if digging up old junk made Daniel happy, who was Jack to question it?

"Chevron seven is locked!" Walter Harriman announced.

Jack turned his attention away from his own thoughts and back to the view before him. With a loud rushing sound that had by now become familiar, the Stargate engaged and the event horizon appeared. The surface of the event horizon resembled a rippling blue pool of water. Jack stared at it. He knew it was a complex bit of technology that none of them quite undersood, but that was of secondary importance to Jack, as he figured he'd never understand more than the basics anyway. It worked. That was all he needed to know. That, and the thing was beautiful.

The team assembled on the ramp in the gate room was SG-13. Jack would have known, even without the benefit of being told. Jack recognized Cameron Balinsky's unruly red hair. Balinsky made Jack think of Daniel again, and he almost failed to hide his grin. The redheaded archaeologist down there in the gate room was almost as enthusiastic as Daniel when it came to digging up old junk. Jack surveyed the other members of SG-13. Senior airmen Wells and Bosworth stood in military readiness, a reassuring sight compared to Balinsky's obvious, barely-contained anticipation. Colonel Dave Dixon stood a few paces ahead of the other three members of his team, the leader, and clearly in command.

Beside Jack, the general was watching SG-13, too. He spoke to them through the microphone. "SG-13, you have a go. Good luck and Godspeed."

With Colonel Dixon in the lead, SG-13 stepped into the shimmering event horizon and disappeared.

Jack waited until Walter Harriman disengaged the 'Gate. He would have lingered after General Hammond left the control room, but he guessed Walter was probably too busy with his 'Gate diagnostics to have a conversation, anyway. Jack exited the control room and decided to go see if Daniel was making any progress with the weird rocks and broken jars from P4X-789.

--------------------

Daniel Jackson was fascinated. The temple ruins on P4X-789 were a veritable archive of information. He and the members of SG-11 had collected several artefacts which they'd brought back to the SGC with them. Daniel had videotaped the site and taken numerous pictures of the inscriptions on the walls and pillars, too. Everything had been indexed and catalogued for further study, which was what Daniel was absorbed in, at that very moment. The writings on the walls and the etchings on the artefacts from 789 were written in a dialect Daniel had not encountered before, though he was reasonably certain the characters derived from ancient Greek, so he had decided to proceed from there. He was sitting at his work table, laptop open in front of him, viewing some of the pictures he'd taken of the walls. The pictures were good, but he would have liked to spend more time with the actual stones themselves. Of course SG-11 would eventually get to return to the planet, which was largely unfair in Daniel's view. Maybe he'd ask General Hammond if he could be temporarily assigned to SG-11 for that study mission. If nothing else, it would get him away from Jack O'Neill for a while. It wasn't that Daniel disliked the colonel. It was only that the archaeologist did not see eye-to-eye with the soldier, and Jack did have an annoying propensity for being, well…_annoying_.

Daniel shook his head. He reached for his coffee and took a long, satisfying swallow of the hot liquid. He wouldn't think of Jack, now. Jack was not here, after all. Besides, the ruins on 789 were much too engrossing for him to allow himself to dwell on anything other than them for too long. Daniel carefully set his coffee on the worktable again and turned his attention back to the computer.

No sooner had he settled his gaze on the pictures before him, Daniel heard an all-too-familiar sound. Someone was tapping on the doorframe. Daniel didn't want to look, but he forced himself to pull himself away from the his work.

He did this just in time to see Jack O'Neill stroll into the room. Daniel sighed.

"Hey, Daniel. What's up?" the colonel said.

"I'm working, Jack," said Daniel. "Incidentally, isn't that what you should be doing? Last time I checked, pens hadn't become sentient and learned how to do paperwork on their own."

"Very funny."

"Jack, did I happen to mention that I'm busy?"

"Yes. Yes, you did."

"Why don't you go and bug Sam for a while?"

"Oh, I was doing that, earlier," Jack said. He picked up a small object from the surface of the work table and peered at it quizzically. "Carter told me I should leave her alone and bug you for a while."

Daniel sighed. "Great."

"So, what does this thing do?" Jack asked. His tone was conversational, even casual. He was still holding the thing he'd lifted from the table. The object was almost completely spherical, except for the round, flat facet on which it had been resting before he'd picked it up. It looked like a rock, and there were symbols etched on it. "Some kind of fancy alien artifact thingy, right?"

"Actually, it's a paperweight," said Daniel.

"Ah. I knew that. But it's a _Goa'uld _paperweight, right? These little symbols here—"

"They're Chinese."

"Oh. So, not Goa'uld, then?"

"No."

"Well, what does it say?"

"Just put down the paperweight, please."

Jack raised his eyebrows. "It says that, huh?"

"Jack—"

"Okay, Daniel. Okay. This is me, putting the paperweight down already." He returned the stone to the table, then backed away from it with his hands raised, palms outward. "So, whatcha working on?"

"Translating some of the writings we found on the walls in those temple ruins on P3X-789."

"Makes for good reading, does it, the writing on the wall?"

"I could let you know all about it, if I had a chance to work on figuring out what it says," Daniel told him. He hadn't meant to let so much irritation creep into his tone of voice, but he tried to convince himself he really couldn't help it, under the circumstances.

Jack, evidently, had missed the exasperation. Either that, or he'd noticed and was choosing to ignore it. The colonel leaned against the edge of the work table and touched the object nearest him, which happened to be a clay pot. "What about this other stuff? Translated any of these treasures, yet? This _fine_ piece of earthenware, for instance?"

Daniel was beginning to give up hope of getting any more work done until he'd humoured the colonel for a few minutes.

"No, I haven't translated the writing on that container, yet." Daniel said. "And to be honest, I don't know what it's for. I haven't gotten a chance to translate the writing yet, but judging by where we found it in the temple it might be some kind of artefact that was used in a religious ceremony of some kind. We found it on what we think might have been an altar, and—"

"Cool. What about this one?" Jack ran his fingertips over the surface of a cube-shaped object. "It doesn't look like the other stuff. Hey, the top part of this thing moves. Did you know that?"

"Jack, don't—" Daniel began.

He did not get the chance to finish his sentence before the room was filled by a blindingly bright light.


	2. Field Research

**A/N** – Well, here's the next bit. I am having a lot of fun with this story already and I hope those of you reading it will enjoy it just as much. Also, big thanks to griffin-girl02, Fiara Fantasy and Elizabeth Bartlett for the replies. It's the replies and reviews that encourage me!

**The Pandora Experiment**

**2. Field Research**

Ksenia was a beautiful world. The planet enjoyed a relatively close orbit around its origin star and as a result was a green, warm world with rich plant life and lush forests. There were numerous species of animal life on Ksenia; fish, mammals and brightly coloured birds. Ksenia had once held a primitive society, too. This, the students had discovered when they travelled the Star Path to visit this world for the first time. The scholars of ancient things loved worlds like Ksenia, because the remnants of ancient cultures could be pondered and speculated upon for weeks and months. For the technicians and engineers and soldiers, however, the small, pretty worlds like Ksenia quickly lost their appeal. If nothing could be learned to advance the technological or military capabilities of their society, the soldiers and builders had little use for such a place. The soldiers and engineers continuously failed to see what it was about digging up irregular stones and broken objects that excited the cultural historians so much, but if the scholars were happy, who were the soldiers to cast doubt on their happiness?

Sometimes the soldiers resented having to accompany the historians on these excursions along the Star Paths to other worlds. In many instances, the environments posed no threat, so the soldiers took turns at the watch as what amounted essentially to a formal compliance with orders. The soldiers who weren't on watch often found themselves feeling very bored. The technicians, too, were sometimes bored when they could not find any relevant or useful technology. On one such mission, a soldier mockingly suggested that the technicians bring some mechanical things along to keep themselves occupied next time. That soldier, whose name was Chena, had been greatly surprised when on his very next trip through the Star Paths he had been accompanied by a technician called Liyal who had, in fact, brought along something to play with. Liyal brought the machine with her on subsequent missions, too, and Chena had also seen her tinkering with it on their own world.

One day, Liyal told Chena the device was complete. He was both amazed and amused when she'd explained it to him. She wanted to test it, so they had decided to test it on Ksenia.

They could not have known about The Primitives. They could not have known the ignorant ones would mistake the device for treasure. They did not foresee that The Primitives actually _knew_ how to create the event horizon that opened the Star Paths and that their coming to Ksenia hadn't been a random accident.

Liyal had hidden her recorder well, so The Primitives hadn't known it was there. When she'd gone to retrieve the recorder, that was when she'd discovered the other device was gone. She had watched the images from her recorder several times, but no matter how many times she watched it, nothing changed. One of The Primitives – the one who'd sneezed repeatedly – had picked up the box and carried it off.

The device was gone.

Liyal had no idea where The Sneezing One had taken it, but she had to get it back. She and Chena were the only people who knew how it worked. In fact, she and Chena were the only people from her world who even _knew_ about it. If the device had fallen into the wrong hands, only the goddess knew what might happen.


	3. Missing In Action

**DISCLAIMER** – I don't own _Stargate _or any of the charaters from the show; however I did make up a few alien characters of my own for this fic. I am writing this fic purely for my own entertainment and the entertainment of others. No money has changed hands. No infringement of copyright is intented. This is fun, no?

**A/N**– Thanks again to those of you who replied! You made my day. Here is the next part, for your reading pleasure. )

**The Pandora Experiment**

**3. Missing In Action**

"Major Carter, have you seen Colonel O'Neill?"

Samantha Carter looked up from her work to see the stocky figure of General George Hammond framed in the doorway of her lab. Sam couldn't judge by the expression on the general's face, but deductive reasoning told her Hammond was most likely not in a good mood. Hammond would not be here in her lab, looking for Jack under normal circumstances, so it didn't take the mind of a brilliant astrophysicist to conclude everything wasn't as it should have been inside Cheyenne Mountain. Most probably, Jack was avoiding his commanding officer, and If the colonel was avoiding the general for some reason, this might be a likely place for him to hide. Sam decided that if Jack was, in fact, trying to avoid the general, she did not want to know why. She was overcome with a powerful sense of relief at being able to tell Hammond honestly that she knew nothing of Jack's whereabouts.

"Colonel O'Neill was here earlier, sir," Sam said. "He left, though. He said he wanted to see SG-13 depart for their latest mission."

"Yes," said Hammond. "That was at 1100 hours."

Sam glanced at her watch, and then at the clock on the wall of the lab. Both timepieces confirmed that it was now 1400 hours. No wonder she was hungry. She realized she'd worked through lunch. She said to Hammond, "I haven't seen the colonel since he left here, although he did mention something about checking on Daniel after he saw SG-13 off."

Hammond made a face, the meaning of which Sam was sure she didn't want to learn. "Have you seen Dr. Jackson today, major?"

"Not since breakfast, sir. Why?"

General Hammond, it seemed, was not about to answer that particular query. "If you see Colonel O'Neill, tell him to report to my office ASAP."

"Will do, sir."

"Very good, major. Thank you." With that, Hammond did an about-face and marched out of the lab.

_Not a happy man_, Sam decided as she watched him leave. _Definitely not a happy man at all_.

--------------------

Commander Tobar did not appear to be a happy man. Chief Historian Kinyi thought briefly on what might be the cause of the commander's grim expression as she watched the soldier march in her direction. Tobar was never really pleasant-tempered at the best of times. Kinyi speculated part of the reason for his gruff disposition came from an evident discomfort in his leg. He seemed to be limping more markedly than usual today. Tobar had been wounded several years ago, and although the wound had healed sufficiently for the commander to return to active duty, the leg would never be as it was before. It _could_ have been restored, Kinyi thought. The problem was that Tobar would not let the healers regenerate it. He wore the reminder of his wound like a badge of honour, the stubborn fool. Kinyi smiled to herself. Stubborn and cantankerous he might be, but she loved him anyway. She had thought to tell him so, many times, but that would be outside the dictates of their customs. She already belonged to a bonded group and they could not have an odd number. Her mates would never have accepted Tobar, anyway.

Tobar had almost reached her location, and Kinyi prepared herself for the onslaught of temper she could see forming in his expression. His ire was not caused entirely by the pain in his leg, she knew. She looked around quickly at the other historians, who were all working busily, uncovering the treasures of this world's past. Surely Tobar's trouble had nothing to do with Kinyi's colleagues and their eager students.

"Professor Kinyi," Tobar called out.

Kinyi did her best to smile at him. "Goddess greeting, Commander Tobar," she said. "See what I've found here."

"I've no time for rocks and the like," Tobar grumbled.

"But this is—"

"Professor Kinyi, hear me," Tobar said. "I have no love for your dusty treasures. Have you seen First Lieutenant Chena?"

"I have not," she answered. "Was he not with you?"

"It's his turn to keep watch and I cannot find him."

"Well, I don't know where he is," Kinyi said. "I have been working here for hours. Have you asked the other soldiers? The technicians?"

Tobar's expression became positively terrible to look upon when she'd mentioned the technicians. "I don't suppose you have seen Liyal today?" he said.

"Not since we came through the gateway. As I've told you, I have been working here for hours, Tobar."

Tobar made a growling sound and glared with a fierceness that would have made a lesser being than Kinyi shiver in anticipatory dread of what might come next. "I'm taking two of my men back to the gateway. We will look for Chena and Liyal on the way. Make sure everyone else stays here. Lieutenant Taiya will be in charge until we return. If you should need anything, speak with her."

Without waiting for Kinyi's acknowledgement of his orders, Tobar turned and limped away from her. Kinyi returned to her work, using a small brush to clean away the dirt from the stone tablet she'd uncovered. Her mind was not completely on her work any more, though. She wondered what Chena and Liyal had gotten themselves into _this_ time. They were undoubtedly the chief mischief-makers on this exploration team, and they had been spending a lot of time together during the past several weeks. No doubt Tobar would accuse them of conspiring to play some immature trick. Kinyi preferred to give them the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps they only wanted to start a new bonding group and were off in the pretty, fragrant Ksenian forest spending time together in private. Of course, with Liyal and Chena's collective reputation for trouble on a grand scale, Kinyi supposed that even if the latter were true, the soldier and the technician could still manage to cause more than a minor incident.


	4. Little Men

**DISCLAIMER**– _Stargate_ and its characters not mine. I am writing this because it's fun. No infringement of copyright intended, no money changed hands. Don't sue me! (Although I do have a law degree, I don't want to be my own lawyer, thanks.)

**The Pandora Experiment**

**4. Little Men**

Jack O'Neill awakened in a totally alien environment; at least, to his eyes the place appeared to be totally alien. His next realization was that he was flat on his back and he had a tremendous headache. His left hip and shoulder ached, too. To his mind, it was as if he'd fallen and landed on that side of his body. Gingerly, he turned his head to examine his immediate surroundings. He was inside. That much was obvious. He was lying on a cold, metallic surface. From what he could see of the walls, they were metal, too. In the dim light it was hard to see the ceiling, but he figured that it was probably made of the same stuff as the walls. The place where he lay was quite dark, but there was light coming from somewhere nearby. With a groan, he hauled himself into a sitting position. He had to shut his eyes for a minute as a wave of dizziness broke over him. He must have hit his head pretty damn hard. He probably had a concussion, he guessed. Well, it would be his first concussion, and it probably wouldn't be his last.

When he was able to open his eyes again, he got carefully to his feet. He turned in a slow circle, surveying the area. The light was coming from a wide opening in the wall, so he decided to head in that direction. The aperture led into another room, the size of which Jack had never seen. Looking straight up at the far-distant ceiling made him feel dizzy all over again.

"Hey!" he called out. "Hey! Anybody here!"

If anyone was there, they did not choose to answer him.

_Peachy. Just peachy,_ Jack grumbled to himself. Where in hell was he? He felt like kicking himself when he recalled his last memory before losing consciousness. The box. He shouldn't have opened Daniel's stupid alien box. Just his luck, he'd probably activated some kind of weird transporter or something. Hell, the box could have been _anything_; a communication device or a weapon, or some alien's idea of a virtual reality game, even. Jack had a disturbing mental image of his body lying on a gurney back at the SGC while his mind took the worst trip it had ever been on.

--------------------

Unlike Jack, when Daniel had awakened, he knew exactly where he was; at least, he was reasonably certain he knew. The question was: how had this happened, and how was he going to get help to figure out how to fix it? Of course the obvious explanation for Daniel's current predicament was that Jack had opened the box, but that wasn't much to go on, especially considering the box was now the equivalent distance of several hundred metres away. Okay, maybe it wasn't _quite_ that far, Daniel conceded to himself, but it might as well have been on the moon for all the hope Daniel had of reaching it in his present condition.

Daniel had awakened to discover that he was lying somewhere very soft and warm. The surface was the exact colour of the chair in his office at the SGC, which had seemed an odd observation at first. When he'd rolled over and sat up, however, the fact became more frightening than strange. Lying beside him on the soft surface was a pencil. The writing implement was longer than Daniel was tall. It looked like a fallen tree. Being careful not to lose his balance on the unsteady surface of what was certainly his desk chair, Daniel had stood and looked around. His suspicion about what had happened was confirmed when he gazed up at his desk. His laptop loomed immense, the pictures of the temple ruins on P4X-789 still displayed on the screen. Next to the computer was Daniel's favourite coffee mug. The mug was probably big enough for him to bathe in, now. In the distance he could see his Chinese paperweight, the clay pot from 789 and the etched box.

What he didn't see was any sign of Jack O'Neill. That worried him. He had called out Jack's name several times, but he'd gotten no answer at all. Finally, he'd given that exercise up, in favour of trying to come up with a more concrete plan of action. He sat down to think, resting his back against the gigantic pencil. Somehow, he had to figure out a way to get out of this mess.

There were two possibilities, he reasoned. When Jack had opened the box the effect had either caused every inanimate object in the vicinity to grow or it had caused every animate object to shrink. Daniel could not decide which it had been. Either way, it was a problem. The sudden, exponential growth or shrinkage of the entire mountain wouldn't exactly go unnoticed. He wondered if the effect really had been widespread or if it had just been localized to this room. Logically, if the effect had only happened in Daniel's office, inanimate objects could not have grown. A sudden increase in size of the walls and ceiling of this room would have caused dangerous structural damage to other parts of the base. That meant, of course, that if the box's effect had only happened here, Daniel – and most likely Jack, too – had been reduced to the approximate size of an average hamster. That was not a comforting thing to contemplate.

A noise just at the periphery of his hearing drew Daniel out of his contemplation. He concentrated, trying to determine what it was. Somebody was yelling. The voice sounded as if it were coming from very far away.

"Hey! Anybody out there? Daniel! _Anybody_!"

_Jack! _Daniel scrambled to his feet and promptly fell on his backside a second later, having lost his footing on the spongy surface of the chair. He decided right away that he'd be safer if he didn't try walking on the soft chair seat. He crawled across the surface as fast as he was able and came as close as he dared to the chair's edge. He took a deep breath and shouted as loudly as he could.

"Jack! Where are you?"

He waited for the answering yell. Jack hollered, "Over here!"

Vague and unhelpful directions, Daniel thought. He peered over the edge of the chair, but he couldn't see Jack anywhere. It was possible the colonel was hidden behind something on the floor. He might even be on the other side of Daniel's now colossal desk.

"Jack, I think I know what happened," Daniel yelled to his friend.

"What?" came Jack's shout. "Daniel, where are you?"

"On my chair!"

This announcement was met by dead silence. Daniel wondered if Jack had heard him. More likely than not, wherever the colonel was, he was standing there with a typically bewildered look on his face. Daniel waited. With any luck, Jack would try to move in Daniel's direction. If he did, that would make communication a whole lot easier.

--------------------

Daniel wasn't sure how much time had passed since he'd awakened to his current predicament. For that matter, he didn't know how long he had been unconscious before that. To him, it felt like hours had passed while he sat there on his outsized chair. He wished he hadn't taken his watch off. When he looked up at his desk, he could see the watch there, facedown next to his coffee mug.

Daniel kept thinking about Jack, wondering if he was okay. Daniel hadn't heard him in a while, though he'd called Jack's name several times. Jack was on the floor, so he could be just about anywhere in the room. Daniel was sure he was still in the room because the door was closed. Jack would not be able to open the huge door, and anyway, if the door _had_ opened, Daniel was sure he would notice it. It was probably a good thing Jack couldn't leave. If everybody else on the base had retained their normal sizes, the corridors could be a very dangerous place for a little colonel. Someone might drop something on him, or step on him, or—

A loud noise off to his left startled Daniel out of that particular line of thought. He caught his breath when he turned to look and realized someone had opened the door. A second later, the person appeared in the doorway. It was Sam Carter. The fact that Sam seemed to be her normal size in relation to the door and the rest of the room was comforting.

Daniel watched as Sam looked around. She didn't call out Daniel's name. She was a practical person, and if she didn't see him at his work table, she would find no cause to call for him. Daniel thought fast. He had to attract her attention somehow and let her know he really was here. It was the giant pencil that provided him with the inspiration he needed. He scurried back to it, and shoved at it. The pencil was unwieldy, but once it started rolling, things got much easier, and Daniel succeeded in pushing it over the edge of the chair's seat.

The clatter the pencil made when it hit the floor made Sam turn around. Daniel wanted to cry with relief when he saw his friend heading his way. Within seconds, Sam was right next to the chair. She looked slightly puzzled. She crouched to retrieve the fallen pencil, putting the seat of the chair almost at her eye level.

Daniel waved his arms and yelled at the top of his lungs, "Sam! Look over here!"

Sam stared right at him, and her eyes widened in surprise. "Daniel?"

"Yes!"

"What happened?" Sam asked him. She was almost whispering. Whether this was a result of her being surprised or of her respect for his relatively tiny eardrums he didn't know, but he was grateful nevertheless.

"We have to find Jack," he told her.

"Do you know where he is? General Hammond's looking for him, too."

Daniel shook his head. "He's got bigger problems than being wanted by General Hammond," he said.

Sam grinned briefly. "Right," she said. "Can you explain what happened?"

"It'd be easier if I didn't have to yell."

"Okay," said Sam. "We'll figure something out. Come on." She put her hand on the chair, palm upward.

The whole situation painted a disconcerting picture in Daniel's mind, but he realized he really had very little choice. He climbed onto Sam's outstretched hand and sat down, cross-legged, on the middle of her palm. He trusted her. He told himself everything would be fine, but even so, he couldn't control the jolt of panic that shot through him when Sam covered him with her other hand and lifted him up. A moment later, he knew they were moving. He squeezed his eyes shut and tried to quell the sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. His friends would never let him live it down if he got sick all over Sam's hand.


	5. An Inconvenience

**A/N** -- Thanks to everyone who replied to the last couple of chapters. Here is the next bit. I promise we will get back to what's happening at the SGC in the following part, but this part takes place entirely off-world. Enjoy!

**The Pandora Experiment**

**5. An Inconvenience**

Technician Liyal was back in her lab at the research facility, but her mind was not on her work. Ever since she had returned from Ksenia, she had not been able to stop thinking about the images on her recorder. She had hidden the recorder and the device yesterday, not long before the others had arrived at the gateway. Ksenia was an ideal world on which to test the device. Her exploration team would be returning to the planet, so Liyal would have a chance to check the recorder and see if any of the curious primates of Ksenia had managed to activate her device in her absense. When she'd returned to Ksenia today, she'd discovered the device was missing. She didn't like the explanation provided to her by the images on her recorder, but neither could she dispute such evidence. Now, of course, she needed to figure out how what she should do next.

Liyal was drawn out of her thoughts by the sound of her laboratory door being opened. She looked up quickly. Her visitor was a welcome one, but she hadn't expected him.

"Chena, what are you doing here?" Liyal exclaimed.

Chena was leaning casually against the frame of the door that led into Liyal's laboratory. He wore a cavalier smile. "Are you unhappy to see me?"

"You shouldn't be here."

"This isn't a restricted area. I'm permitted to be here," Chena said.

"That is not the point," said Liyal. She abandoned her tools and scurried across the room. She grabbed Chena by both his hands and pulled him into the room. The automated door, no longer sensing any obstruction, slid closed with a soft hiss. Liyal frowned. "What if Commander Tobar catches you here?"

"Commander Tobar won't catch me. He thinks I've gone home."

"You _lied_ to him?" Liyal knew her face must have betrayed her feeling of alarm. "Chena, you know how much trouble you'll be in if he finds out!"

"I did not lie to him…exactly," Chena said.

"Chena!"

Chena freed his fingers from Liyal's and slipped his hands into his pockets. "I instructed the computer to make it appear as if I had signed out of the facility. Anyone who checks it will never know the difference."

Liyal shook her head. "I should never have let you borrow that text on computer programming."

"Shame on you for allowing me to acquire such knowledge," Chena said. He made a clicking sound with his tongue, as he waved his slender fingers in a scolding gesture. "Clearly, my misdeeds are all _your_ fault."

Despite the situation, Liyal found herself laughing. She could never resist Chena and his playful gestures. On an impulse that defied all protocol, she slipped her arms around the soldier and hugged him affectionately. "Oh Chena, you _are_ a menace to the proper order of things."

"That is the reason you love me, isn't it?" Chena said.

"Was Commander Tobar very angry with you for wandering off this afternoon?"

"Commander Tobar is permanently angry with me. I don't suppose it can get worse. He threatened me will all sorts of disciplinary action, but I think I escaped with minimal damage this time."

"This time," Liyal echoed. "You do cause a lot of trouble, you know. I pray to the goddess that you'll know when to stop, before you go too far."

"Wait until we are bonded," Chena said. He buried his face in Liyal's pale, shaggy hair, and when he laughed she could feel the vibration of his laughter against the top of her head. "You have no idea how far I am capable of going, and the goddess herself would do well simply to avert her gaze and pretend not to have noticed."

"Rascal," Liyal accused.

"Thank you," Chena said, and laughed again. "Now, tell me why you're here at this time of night. The sun went down hours ago."

Liyal pulled away from him. The feeling of happiness she'd experienced in Chena's embrace was transitory, and it slipped away as quickly as it had come over her. She realized her mouth had become very dry. She swallowed several times, though it didn't really help. The fluttery feeling in her chest had returned. She knew she had to tell him what had happened. He was the only one who would understand, and he was quite possibly the only one who could help. She took a deep breath.

"Chena," she said. "The device is gone."

Chena raised one pale eyebrow. "Do you mean your new weapon? How can it be gone? Where did it go?"

"How many times must I explain that it's not a weapon?" she said. "Let me show you what happened."

"Show me? How?"

"I have images on my recorder. Come over here and look."

Chena followed her across the room to where her recorder rested on a large work table. Liyal touched the recorder's controls with small, delicate fingers, and the images began to play, projected holographically before their eyes. Liyal had seen the recording over a dozen times now, but the images still made her shake with fright at the implications of what had happened. She and Chena watched as the projection showed the innocuous-looking box resting in the grass several paces from the gateway on Ksenia. Several of the planet's native primates came down from the trees to examine the box, but none of them succeeded in depressing the control that would open it.

Liyal touched the recorder's controls again and advanced the projection by several time units. Next, the image showed the gateway becoming active. A loud _kawoosh!_ filled the lab as the recorder played the captured sound of the opening gateway. A moment after the rippling event horizon resolved, five beings emerged from the Star Path and came through the gateway. The beings were large and dark, and they were strangely dressed. Their hair was closely-cropped and ranged in shades from light brown to black. When they spoke to each other, it was in low, grumbling tones.

Liyal had been a bit frightened the first time she'd watched the recording, because she had never seen beings like them before. After she'd seen the images several times she was less afraid, and even dared to formulate a few theories. One of her theories was that these primitive beings were all male, though she could not be absolutely sure. One of them appeared to be ill, as he sneezed with unrelenting frequency. His illness did not seem to have dampened his enthusiasm, however. Alien though he was, Liyal could not mistake his excitement. She guessed The Sneezing One was the youngest. The other aliens seemed fond of him and amused by his behaviour. They seemed to treat him with the same indulgence Liyal's own people treated their children.

Liyal found herself incapable of disliking The Sneezing One, even though he'd been the one who'd carried off her device. Children sometimes did things in ignorance. All these beings were primitive. Perhaps the adults did not possess the sense to tell the youngster not to take the box. Liyal's fear was that the alien beings would activate the device on their own world. They would not understand how it worked, and they would not know how to reverse its effects.

Beside her, Chena was staring intently at the projected images. He startled Liyal when he said suddenly, "I have seen these people before."

Liyal paused the projection. She turned to face Chena fully. "You've seen them?"

"Humans," he said. "They are called humans. I have seen them twice before, on exploratory missions to other worlds."

"Are they primitive?" Liyal asked.

"The humans I observed were extremely primitive. The first time I encountered them, they thought we were sent to them by their gods. They claimed only their gods used the Star Paths. The second group of humans I encountered thought we were evil spirits. They called us _ghosts_."

"Ghosts?"

"Spirits of the dead. Ask Professor Kinyi about it. She's knowledgeable about such things. I'm sure she's met humans before. She and Commander Tobar have travelled the Star Paths more than any of us."

"Why haven't you ever told me that you'd met…humans?"

"You did not ask," Chena said, and offered her a sheepish grin.

"Well, these humans have taken my device. Look." She fast-forwarded the recording again, and the humans wandered into the range of the recorder's lens. One of the humans – the one Liyal had decided was their leader – spoke a command to the others. The Sneezing One did not appear to be listening to the Leader. He was busy poking around in the grass. When he discovered the box, he brought it to the Leader and showed it to him. The Leader conferred with another of the humans, who seemed to be the Leader's First Lieutenant. They had evidently agreed to let The Sneezing One keep the box. First Lieutenant used the control pillar to activate the gateway. A moment later, the gateway _kawhoosh_ed to life and the five humans stepped through, taking Liyal's device with them.

Liyal stopped the recording.

Chena blew air between his lips, which fluttered the shaggy white hair that fell across his forehead. "This is inconvenient," he said.

"What are we going to do?"

"Can we retrieve the device?"

"We don't know where the humans went."

"Of course we do," Chena said. "The recording shows them using the control pillar. We should be able to see the address of their world."

"We can't go to an alien world without clearance," Liyal protested. "Besides, someone will know if we activate the gateway. What if—"

Chena held up a pale-skinned hand. "I learned well from your computer texts, Liyal. We can be there and back before the sun rises. No one will know."

Liyal and Chena had been so intent on their conversation that neither had noticed the soft hiss of the opening door. It was the sound of a gruff male voice that made them both whirl around.

"No one will know about _what_, Lieutenant Chena?"

Liyal suddenly wished the floor would open and swallow her. Chena's face had gone almost as white as his hair, and he sounded as if he could barely breathe any more.

"Commander Tobar," Chena managed. "Sir, what are you doing here?"

"I could ask the same of you," Tobar said.

_Now this situation,_ Liyal thought_, was definitely inconvenient._


End file.
